Suit over SF residential hotel searches

COURTS

Updated 4:53 pm, Thursday, December 27, 2012

Two men and a woman have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of San Francisco, contending they were wrongfully arrested at a residential hotel by police officers who claimed to have permission to conduct searches but were instead caught on video entering rooms by using a master key.

The incidents occurred at the Henry Hotel at 106 Sixth St., where narcotics officers based at Southern Station conducted searches of two units on Dec. 23, 2010, and Jan. 5, 2011.

In the first incident, Carlos Hutcherson said he was visiting a friend in a hotel room when officers with a master key provided by the hotel clerk barged inside and dragged him into the hallway, said the suit filed last Friday in U.S. District Court in Oakland.

The officers said they found heroin on Hutcherson and arrested him. He was held in jail for two months until his preliminary hearing, at which an officer testified that the search was lawful, the suit said.

"However, that testimony was directly contradicted by the video footage of the incident," and a judge dismissed the charges against Hutcherson, the complaint said.

In the second incident, Tarasa Gates said she was returning to her room at the hotel when a group of officers repeatedly ordered her to open her door, the suit said. Afraid, Gates put her key in the door's lock, and officers rushed inside and encountered Donald Walton, the suit said.

Both were arrested after a small amount of heroin was found in the room, the suit said. The officers didn't have a warrant to search the room, and a judge found that the officers had perjured themselves in court,the complaint said.

"Everyone has constitutional rights, and to the extent that those rights are violated, officers should be held accountable," said John Burris, an attorney for the plaintiffs. "Officers cannot take the law into their own hands and disrespect people just because they have criminal histories of some kind."

Last year, Public Defender Jeff Adachi released several videos of alleged police misconduct stemming from searches at the South of Market hotel.

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